Lake dentist Tim Pruett invents new way to floss

Dr. Tim Pruett, a Lake County dentist, has created a new way to… (Tom Benitez, Orlando Sentinel )

February 18, 2014|By Teresa Burney, Correspondent

Lake County dentist Dr. Tim Pruett tried every which way to get his patients to floss.

He explained the hazards of neglecting flossing. He demonstrated proper flossing technique. He lectured: "These are your teeth they are not like fingernails, they don't grow back."

He even showed patients photos of the decay he removed from their mouths and how much material it took to fill the voids.

"We found it would make an impact, but it wouldn't be lasting," said Pruett, who lives in Mount Dora and practices in Tavares.

Finally, after all those exhaustive efforts over the years, Pruett decided more education wouldn't solve the problem. Today, Pruett's answer, the Flossolution, is sold on Amazon.com, through dental offices and at its website: flossolution.com. The device has been awarded one patent, and has three others pending, he said.

"Basically everybody knows that they should," he said of flossing. The trouble is few people want to floss and, if they do, they often don't do it right.

Pruett decided to figure out a way to make it easier to floss correctly and eliminate all the reasons patients told him they don't floss: It hurts, it makes my gums bleed, the floss gets stuck, it takes too long, I don't like putting my fingers in my mouth.

Pruett started his project with dental floss, what he considers to be the "gold standard" material for cleaning between teeth.

Then he created a handle to hold the floss, a guard to keep the floss from going too far into the gums and a bumper that allows the user to push the floss between the teeth, curving it around to the surfaces, by biting down.

There are two versions of the Flossolution, one manual and the other attached to a sonic device that moves the floss and can also be used with a toothbrush head. The sonic startup kit with a two-month supply of floss and a toothbrush attachment sells for $119.95 at flossolution.com. The Flossolution Lite, without the sonic attachment, is $19.95.

While Pruett built the prototype, his wife, Heather, who runs the practice's business side and has experience launching products, helped design its look.

Pruett found mentors and legal and accounting advisers to help get the device patented. A major toothbrush manufacturer in Tennessee did some of the design and packaging.

"Literally they helped us go from step one to three to 20," Pruett said.

Last April Pruett started offering the device in a few dental offices. That was successful enough to warrant a national launch in September.

"For the first couple of years it was a time and money investment with zero return," Pruett said.

Now, he said, "it's really exciting" to begin getting returns on the investment. But Pruett has no plans to close his dentistry practice even if Flossolution becomes a best seller.